Bulgaria's Environment and Water Minister Djevdet Chakurov will not approve an environmental impact assessment for the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis Oil Pipeline Project unless it categorically guarantees protection of the environment and human health, Chakurov's Ministry said in a press release Wednesday.

The Minister expressed this position when he met in Bourgas on Wednesday with a working commission of the Bourgas Municipal Council tasked with addressing the problems that may arise in implementation of the project.

The councillors voiced concern over the risk of oil leaks and heavy pollution of the Black Sea which will threaten the two principal sources of livelihood for the local people: tourism and fishing.

Chakurov called on the local authorities in Bourgas to engage actively in the debate on the environmental impact assessment that the investor will prepare and, if necessary, to commission its own experts to make an independent analysis.

"The investor has not yet submitted any documents on the project to the Ministry, and when this is done we will organize broad discussions and we will make a decision in full interaction with local government," Chakurov said. He vouched that the pipeline route will be fixed with utmost care, considering both the
possible risks of Black Sea pollution and its crossing of protected areas included in the NATURA 2000 network and the environmentally safest option will be approved.

The Bourgas-Alexandroupolis project was initiated in 1994 by Greek and Russian companies as an alternative for moving Russian and Caspian oil to Western Europe, bypassing the traffic-congested and environment-risky Turkish straits. Under the 700 million euro project, oil will be tankered across the
Black Sea from Novorossiysk, Russia, to Bourgas, Bulgaria, and will be piped from there over 288 km (including 155 km on Bulgarian territory) to Alexandroupolis (on the Greek Aegean coast). The annual capacity of the pipeline is designed at 35 million t, with a possibility for an increase to 50 million t.